You're Not Alone
by shieldmaiden5678
Summary: Helga has been feeling incredibly lonely lately during her senior year of high school. Is a surprise visit from Arnold the thing she needs to pick her spirit up? One shot.


Helga slumped down on to the couch in the family living room and curled her arms around her knees, burying her face into her legs. She tried to keep the tears at bay, but it was no use. Letting out a muffled sob, the tears flowed freely from her deep blue eyes and streamed down her cheeks as the setting sun bathed the room in an effervescent glow. Her parents had abruptly left to go see her sister in Germany, leaving her behind in the house all alone and her best friend, Phoebe, had been too busy with her various clubs and classes to spend any time with her.

She had actually just gotten off the phone with Phoebe not too long ago. "Phoebe? Did you want to hang out tonight? We could watch a movie or something."

"Helga, I'm sorry, but you know how busy I am. I have three papers to write, a chess club agenda to draft for tomorrow's meeting, and cello practice to attend to."

"Oh," Helga had dejectedly said. "Well, don't worry about it."

"We'll hang out together again, eventually," sighed Phoebe sadly before she clicked her phone shut. That had been the final straw for Helga. Phoebe had been her only friend throughout high school and now that it was senior year, it was as though her last beacon of support had faded away into a mountain of papers and schoolwork. She couldn't blame her best friend, but she did wish that she would at least set aside a little time for just the two of them so that she wouldn't feel so alone and worthless.

As her tears continued to trickle down her face, her cell phone rang and she quickly snapped it open. "What?" she yelled into the phone in an annoyed tone.

"Uh, Helga?"

"Arnold?" she yelped in a surprised voice as she recognized his calm voice.

"Yea, it's me. Uh, is everything okay?"

"Everything's just peachy, Arnoldo. What do you want?"

"I forgot the algebra assignment for today, and well, I already tried calling Gerald and a few other people, but I wasn't able to reach anyone. Do you know what it is?"

"It's problems one through thirty on page seventy-nine in the textbook." Helga curtly replied while drumming her fingers on the armrest of the couch.

"Oh man, thanks Helga! You're a real life saver."

"Yea yea yea, I'm a real bonafide hero aren't I," she said sardonically with a scowl.

"Are…are you sure you're doing okay, Helga?" She bit her lip at this, wondering if she should tell Arnold what was really going on. He would definitely be able to help her get out of her slump, knowing that he always seemingly knew the solution to everyone's problems. However, she didn't want him to see her in this state and she didn't know if she would be able to control her emotions around him. She still had the terrible habit of lashing out at him for no reason and she knew that she had inflicted some emotional pain on him throughout their high school career. Even though she had gained better control of it to the point where she only did it occasionally, she still feared really hurting him to where there was no hope for them ever being together.

She sighed into the speaker of her cell phone and responded, "Yes, I'm fine. Talk to you later, football head." With that she clicked her phone shut and immediately resumed her self pity session.

After a while the tears stopped coming and she was sprawled across the couch staring at the ceiling. She had managed to change into her pajamas consisting of a light pink camisole and white flannel pajama pants. Her hair lay loosely about her shoulders and her eyes held a distant look as she silently mulled over what the future held and how much longer she could handle being miserable like this. A knock at the door brought her out of her thoughts and she shot up into a sitting position gazing over to the door. She quirked her eyebrow as she wondered to herself who could possibly be at the door.

Quickly she walked to the door and swung it open to come face to face with a football shaped head with ruffled blonde hair shooting up at odd angles. She stifled a surprised yelp, however she couldn't hide the shock that came over her face as she realized that Arnold was on her front porch. "Hey, Helga," he said meekly with a small smile and a kind look. "You didn't sound too happy on the phone and I wanted to come over and see how you were doing for myself."

Her heart went all a flutter as she swooned inwardly at the realization that Arnold had walked all the way over to her house simply to check on her. However, she quickly squelched this and placed her hands on her hips as a stern look crossed her face. "Well, I'm obviously doing just dandy, football head, so you can scamper on home and hang with your quirky but lovable boarding house family!" She then forcefully slammed the door, however it did not fully shut as Arnold had stuck his foot into the entry way. He let out a yelp of pain and Helga clapped her hands to her mouth to stifle her gasp.

"You're not okay," he said as he swung the door back open. "You may think you have everyone fooled, but you don't have me fooled." Helga crossed her arms across her chest and turned away from him so that he couldn't see her biting her lip to keep a new onslaught of tears from finding their way out.

"I told you, I'm fine," she said softly. A click and the sounds of footsteps told her that Arnold had let himself into her home. She swung around and yelled furiously, "Now get out and LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Arnold's face took on a stern expression that he only got when he was truly peeved or extremely determined. "No, Helga! I'm not leaving until you tell me what's going on!" She let out a frustrated yell in response before storming over to the couch and flopping back on to it.

"Nothing is going on, Arnoldo! Now go home so I can watch my wrestling without having to deal with your dopey chatter!" She snatched the remote up, but Arnold quickly grabbed it out of her hands and set it on the coffee table in front of them.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said softly as he sat down on the couch beside her. Helga turned away from him and brought her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her chin upon her knees. She couldn't help but feel a little thrilled that Arnold really was trying to help her out, however she still felt miserable about everything.

The two sat in silence for a while with Helga trying as hard as she could to ignore Arnold and Arnold waiting patiently for her to open up. He knew that if he waited long enough, she would let him through the barrier that she had worked so hard to keep up. He had learned this when they were children, and it was something that he had mastered getting around when necessary once he had hit his teens.

After about a half an hour, he heard a despondent sigh from Helga and leaned in a little closer as she began to talk. "I feel so alone," she quietly started. "I feel like a ghost this year and this is our last year of high school. Once we leave and go off to wherever, no one is going to remember me or who I am. I'll just disappear out of existence and memory."

"What about your parents?" Arnold inquired.

Helga let out a derisive snort at this."They're both still too in love with Olga and all of her astounding successes. 'Oh look, Olga is now a major Broadway star! Oh, now she's a UN representative! Guess what! Olga cured cancer!' Yea, they really care about me," she sarcastically said as her shoulders sagged a little.

"Phoebe?"

"You've seen how busy she is this year! Sure we still talk once in a blue moon, but it's not the same anymore. She's president of like half the clubs on campus, plus she's taking all those advanced classes. When she's not studying, she's off canoodling with Gerald and then what little bit of time she has left, if any, is only enough for a brief conversation. We don't even hang out anymore." A few tears dropped from her eyes as she said this, but she made sure not to face Arnold so he wouldn't see. What she couldn't see was the sad look in his eyes as he realized just how broken and alone Helga had become. He had always considered her to be his friend, especially after he figured out that she never truly meant the horrible things she sometimes said to him, however he was sure that she didn't think the same about him. "No one cares about me," Helga breathed as her body convulsed in a silent sob.

A few seconds of silence passed between the two teenagers. "I care about you." Helga's head shot up and around to face Arnold once she heard this. He was softly smiling at her dumbstruck face. She cocked her head to the side curiously as though she didn't believe what she had heard. "I care about you, Helga," repeated Arnold as he scooted closer to her.

"Why would you care about me," she said apprehensively. "I'm always calling you names and putting you down. You should hate me, heck I was sure you didn't care an eon about me."

Arnold shook his head and replied, "I care a lot about you. Sure you do call me some annoying names sometimes and can really push my buttons when you want to," he let out an amused chuckle at this. "However, when you do open up to me, I find that we really get along and you have helped me through some difficult times. I care about you. If I didn't, do you think I would have come over?" He grinned at her as he finished and rubbed the back of his neck. A small smile crossed Helga's face as she visibly relaxed and came out of her shell.

"No, I guess not," she admitted as she nervously ran her hand up and down her left arm. She suddenly found herself enveloped in Arnold's arms as he brought her into a tight embrace. Her eyes widened in surprise and a small squeak escaped her mouth.

"You're not alone, Helga," he whispered in her ear as he held her. "You'll always have me." At this tears began to pour from Helga's eyes as she hugged Arnold back.

"Thank you," she softly whispered in his ear. The two remained in each other's embrace for several moments before awkwardly breaking apart. Helga quickly turned away so that Arnold couldn't see the blush that was appearing on the apples of her cheeks and her gleeful smile of triumph at knowing that Arnold really did care about her. What she didn't see was that Arnold was blushing a deep shade of red too, however he could not fully understand why. "So," he said as soon as he had regained his composure.

"Did you want to do something tomorrow? It is a Saturday, and, well, Gerald is busy with Phoebe so…"

Helga vigorously nodded. "I'd like that. Want to go to the arcade? I can pummel you at air hockey!"

Arnold laughed at this. "Not if I beat you first!"

"In your dreams, Arnoldo," said Helga while rolling her eyes and smirking. She walked with him to the front door and he hugged her once more before leaving while waving goodbye. She returned the wave with one of her own and a gentle smile. Once she had closed the door, she slumped down against it while hugging herself and letting out a deep sigh. Finally, her world was starting to look like a brighter place.


End file.
